This invention relates to an earth boring or shaft sinking apparatus in which a cutting wheel with cutting elements is continuously rotated about an axis normal to the direction of the hole to be bored, and also continuously rotated about an axis coinciding with the axis of the hole to be bored, and in which endless bucket means are associated with said cutting wheel and with a sprocket means remote from said cutting wheel, whereby cuttings in the hole can be collected by said bucket means and conveyed directly to a remote location for suitable disposal.
Prior proposed earth boring machines for making large holes or shafts in the order of 26 feet in diameter include a machine shown in Sugden U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,995, in which a cutter wheel carries cutting units and fixed buckets which are rotatable about the cutting wheel axis. The buckets fixed on the wheel discharge their collection of cuttings into separate vertical endless bucket means, which at its lower end passes through the center portion of the cutting wheel. The cutting wheel is rotated about its axis until a selected depth of cut is made, the cutting wheel is then raised and turned or shifted through a selected angle about the longitudinal axis of the hole to be cut, returned to its cutting position and then rotated about its wheel axis to cut additional earth material until it reaches the depth of the prior cut. Such incremental fixed angular cutting continues until a selected depth of hole is reached.
Another prior proposed earth boring machine is shown in Cox U.S. Pat. No. 3,379,264, in which a main frustoconical head is rotated about a vertical axis and an endless bucket means is provided centrally along said axis and through said main head for collecting cuttings made by the conical head and which fall into a pre-bored pilot hole into which the bucket means extends. The endless bucket means is movable vertically relative to the cutting head and is also rotatable about the vertical axis of the hole to be bored.
Another prior device is shown in Sletten, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 1,154,137, where a disk-like slicer-like cutter head is rotatable about a vertical axis and an endless bucket means passes immediately thereabove for collecting cuttings which are passed through openings in the disk-like cutter head.
Another prior proposed apparatus for drilling holes in earth formations is shown in Jones, U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,370, in which a peripheral cylindrical shaped cutting wheel with diamond bits is continuously rotatable about a horizontal axis and is continuously rotated about a vertical axis. Jones' drilling machine is for drilling oil wells of small diameter as compared to a shaft of over sixteen feet in diameter and includes the use of drilling mud to transport by fluid means cuttings made by the drill wheel.
Christianson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,547,211, discloses a mucking bucket rotatably mounted between the lower ends of a pair of links suspended for lateral pivotal movement from a rotatable turntable for a pendulum swinging-like motion, as well as rotation about a horizontal axis.
Prior proposed systems for handling the cuttings made by the cutting wheels or cutter heads have usually required collection of cuttings by one set of buckets and transfer of cuttings to a second set of buckets, that is, dual handling of the cuttings at the bottom of the hole, such as in the Sugden patent, or have included independent bucket means as in the Cox patent.